Culinary Director at Apres Cru Hospitality

Role: Culinary Operations Manager, Big Sky
Reports To: Director of Operations, Big Sky
Direct Reports: Buck’s Culinary Team, Tips Up Culinary Team, Block 3 Culinary Team
Current Operations: Bucks, Tips Up, Block 3
Classification: Exempt
Key Relationships: General Managers, Apres Cru, Marketing, HR Lone Mtn. Land

Position Overview:

The Culinary Operations Manager is the hands-on senior leadership position within
the Culinary Department. They are based out of Bucks where they are actively
involved in service, managing the culinary team and also ensuring culinary standards
are met at Block 3 and Tips Up.

They are responsible for continually elevating our culinary operations through,
development of talent, financial acumen, and ensuring consistency in execution.
They must have a pulse on food, labor, development costs and expenses as it pertains
to culinary operations while coaching their teams to do the same.
They work with supporting departments (marketing, finance, accounting,
design/development, operations) to continually evolve and elevate our operations
and offerings, monitoring their impact on the business, while identifying and
providing solutions to new opportunities that present themselves.
As a growing company, they are constantly developing and recruiting great talent
for our current and future needs. In conjunction with operations and HR, they
create training and development programs to aid in the growth and creation of a
community that will improve retention and set our teams up for success.
They place a maniacal focus on food safety and cleanliness in our operations.
Working with our Operations Team, they help monitor and ensure compliance
with all systems and standards to ensure the business thrives on all levels.
The Culinary Operations Manager is an ambassador of our brand, both internally
and externally and is an engaged and active contributor to the overall success of all
of our brands.

Key Responsibilities

●Bring to life the Apres Cru values through every interaction● Work with Culinary Teams to recruit, interview and develop great talent
● Create and execute overarching culinary training development
program in conjunction with operations
● Ensure training materials for culinary are current, relevant, and adhered to in all
our restaurants
●Is actively involved in the continued development of our teams through
new restaurant openings, sous chef calls, chef calls, directors calls and
pre-shifts
● Develop and nurture a culture of accountability, integrity, hospitality, pride, and
teamwork
● Provide clear, transparent, honest feedback to the team
● Bring to life a hospitality-centric vision with our culinary operations team
● Supports in the messaging and collection of feedback to/from the restaurants
and translate into action items
● Ensure all internal communication to culinary teams is on brand

Systems and Operations

●Implement/Leverage systems to set teams up for success and achieve financial goals
●Play and active role in the day to day operations of Bucks
● Create and implement systems to monitor and ensure consistent
execution across all culinary operations
● Collaborate with operations, culinary leadership, marketing, and finance to
proactively develop and rollout new menu items
● Develop recipes, and ensure all menu items are costed out in Craftable prior to
implementation and actively maintain a recipe database and properly mapped
recipes
● Work with culinary teams to ensure a constant maniacal focus on cleanliness
and food safety and systems are in place and adhered to on a daily basis
● Utilize data to monitor, and project impact of changes
● Use existing tools to monitor food cost and labor costs and proactively
capitalize/correct any trends on a weekly and monthly basis
● Work within a weekly declining food spend budget to keep spending on track
with projected business levels
● Is responsible for maintaining Food Cost, Labor Cost, DOH and Inventory
oversight at Bucks, Tips Up, Block 3
● Evaluate supply chain decisions to ensure best quality/pricing ratio in all
markets
● Work with clients on event menu requests and coordinate with Event sales
team on client needs and menu development
● Work with DO, General Managers & Culinary leadership on monthly P&L
assessments from the BOH point of view

Development

●Lead and coordinate execution of all culinary projects and events.
● Serve as the culinary point person on the design, development, critical path
and operations for transitions and seasonal ramp up
● Drive culinary/recipe & menu development for events, media, festivals, and
other ancillary endeavors
● Actively involved in publicity opportunities and community outreach
● Serve as an ambassador of Apres Cru with all vendors, partners, and potential
development and partnership opportunities
● Work closely with design and operations on new restaurant design, smallware
and cap-ex projects
● Serve as advanced team planning, coordinating, liaising, and execution on
events and festivals

Additional Skills and Responsibilities:

● Excellent communicator, time management, and problem-solving skills
● Hands-on leader who possesses an ability to adapt and lead change
● Analytical and organizational skills, as well as the ability to define and effectively
solve a variety of changing situations under stress.
● Must possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to resolve conflicting
interests with the goal of obtaining cooperation.
● Passion for exceptional hospitality, food, and beverages.
● Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
● Self-driven, results-oriented, and possesses a solid track-record of leading
high-caliber teams at upscale restaurants.
● Flexible work schedule, including working service on holidays, nights and
weekends is expected
● Travel between restaurants is expected
● Occasional travel in and out of the country, and amongst development
projects is expected
● May be required to lift, carry, push, or pull heavy objects up to 50 lbs.
● Kneel, bend, or stoop, ascend or descend stairs; be on feet for extended
amounts of time
● Working in an environment that may be exposed to hazardous situations and
conditions that produce cuts or minor burns
Preferred Experience:
● Multi Unit Fine Dining Leadership Experience
● Experience in large scale event execution
● Has demonstrated ability to grow and build teams
● Knowledge and skills in analyzing P&L statements and overall financial
performance
● Recipe and Labor Costing
● Kitchen Design and Restaurant Opening
● High Volume Experience a plus
● Digital Savvy with above average proficiency in a variety of technology systems,
especially Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), G-Suite, Toast
POS, Craftable, OpenTable etc.